When a customer reports a software-related problem to a vendor, the vendor's support person desirably understands the “user environment”, namely the relevant software/hardware environment in which the software product operates.
Typically, the user environment is described in part when the customer (that is, the user) reports a problem to the vendor. When reporting the problem, the customer may not have an understanding of the configuration of the user environment that is sufficient to assist a support person to diagnose the technical problem reported by the customer.
Typically, the customer's problem is recorded in a Problem Management System. The support person then solicits relevant information from the customer via telephone, email or other contact with the customer.
If the customer is suitably skilled, the customer may be able to provide the support person with all relevant information. In such cases, the problem can be readily resolved in most cases.
In some cases, information required to identify and/or resolve the problem may reside in the user environment in a form that is not readily accessible or retrievable by the customer. In such situations, the support person diagnosing the problem may provide to the customer programs or scripts that capture the relevant information on the affected systems.
The customer runs the relevant programs or scripts on the customer's systems and a report is then sent back to the support person, or logged in a Problem Management System.
The support person may spend a considerable amount of time understanding the user environment. Understanding the user environment can be particularly difficult for complex environments. For example, middleware products (such as IBM Websphere™, Lotus Notes™, Mqseries™ and DB2™ products) may operate in a distributed environment, with third party applications running on different platforms and/or operating systems. Typically, a number of different software versions are present. With increasing numbers of software products and release versions, helping the customer to manage their configurations can be particularly difficult for the vendor.
Complexity of the sort involved in providing technical support can be difficult to administer. Some published approaches are noted below.
U.S. Pat. No 4,654,852 issued Mar. 31, 1987 to Bentley, et al describes a data-processing subsystem that diagnoses problems in a subsystem, by sensing the configuration of the subsystem. The described system is not used, however, for remote diagnostics.
U.S. Pat. No 5,287,505 issued Feb. 15, 2002 to Calvert et al describes automated problem analysis and resolution of problems relating to customer data-processing systems. A service system orders repair modules, and electronically communicates software fixes to the customer system.
U.S. Pat. No 5,367,667 issued Nov. 22, 2002 to Wahlquist et al describes performing remote diagnostics upon a personal computer system, when a user calls a help line. A computerized case file is created, which includes information about the user's system.
U.S. Pat. No 5,678,002 issued Oct. 14, 1997 to Fawcett et al similarly describes an automated system for diagnosing and resolving computer-related problems from a product support centre.
U.S. Pat. No 5,758,071 issued May 26, 1998 to Burgess et al describes tracking the configuration of a computer coupled to a computer network. This configuration data is repeatedly obtained, and logged to a configuration database.
U.S. Pat. No 6,298,457 issued Oct. 2, 2001 to Rachlin et al describes capturing a description of an “operating domain” and transmitting this description to a software support centre. The operating environment is captured in sufficient detail to allow the problem experienced by the user to be recreated by service representatives.
The above-mentioned references, though useful contributions to the art, are not universal solutions to the complicated issue of providing accurate, efficient and timely technical support to end users of computer software products. Accordingly, in view of the above observations, a need clearly exists for an improved method of providing technical support.